Stars take on state's best in Lynx, Cougars

Posted: Sunday, October 20, 2002

By Staff report

The Soldotna High School boys and girls swimming and diving teams proved to be right in the mix of things heading into region and state competition with strong showings in a tri-meet with Dimond and Service in Anchorage Friday.

The Soldotna boys were second with 109 points to Dimond's 114 while the Soldotna girls were a very close third with 96 points to Service's 126 and Dimond's 106.

"I'm very pleased with our kids," Soldotna coach Sohail Marey said. "When it comes to the Dimond and Service competition, they take it very seriously. Between the two teams, they've won a number of state championships in the past few years. We were kind of the outsiders at this meet. I asked for this meet two years ago. We wanted to swim with the best in the state."

Marey said swimming in the Dimond pool did take some getting used to -- the water is shallow at both ends, making starts a little different, and the water temperature was warmer than what the Stars were used to.

Still, Marey said his squad performed well.

"We had a number of first places, we just could not win the middle spots, fourth and fifth place, as often as we wanted," Marey said. "In general, I was quite pleased. We went to the meet with a great attitude."

In the boys competition, Nick Sorrell and Leo Grasso each won a pair of individual events while Nathan Grabowski put up some key points in the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley. Clayton Harrison swam well in the 100 breaststroke and Ty Mann-Schweigert took first in the 50 freestyle.

Marey said the girls 200 medley relay started the meet in fine fashion with a win, edging the Cougars by just under a second.

"We were very close (in the relay) last year, but they still had the edge," Marey said. "So far this year, we still have the fastest time in the state. They wanted to win it. They were ahead for the first 100, but Abby Kiffmeyer and Jenna Syverson closed the relay for us."

Syverson won two individual events, and Kiffmeyer took first in the backstroke. Marey added that it was nice to see Catie Coursen consistently improving.